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Gaygen Presents Research on Music's Role in Buying Decisions

Dan Gaygen, assistant professor of business, presented his research at The American Marketing Association 2012 Winter Educator’s Conference in February at St. Petersburg Beach, Florida.

Gaygen's talk, "The Effects of Music on the Time Course and Number of Buy Decisions," included reports on two well-controlled laboratory experiments that directly tested the effects of tempo, key, and affective qualities of music on participants' buying decisions. A Buy/No Buy experimental paradigm was developed that measured the time course and frequency of Buy Decisions by participants viewing photographs of models wearing articles of clothing for sale. The results indicate that Buy Decisions take longer than No Buy Decisions and that unwanted items are, on average, rejected very quickly. Exposure to music significantly reduced viewing times and Buy Decisions though different qualities of music had no differential effects.